Coming Soon Moonswallow Gates

I've been up in the air about Moonswallow Gates. One part of me thinks I should try sending it out to traditional publishers and there is another part of me that is screaming THE TIME IS NOW. I shouldn't wait to publish but do it now. The time is now, it's about as good as any I suppose. I finished the book cover the other day and now I preparing the manuscript first for Kindle and then for print. I have already went through 107 pages. When it is printed there will be about 300 or so pages which isn't too bad for a 6x9 book.

Do you want to know a secret? I am scared to publish it. The novel is seen as this pinnacle to writing. To write the novel. To publish the novel. This novel could one of  three things:

1. It could make me
2. It could break me
3. It would neither make or break me and it will just one of thousands of titles on Kindle.

See what I mean? It's like I am jumping into a deep ass sea with no clothes on and I see the hungry sharks coming my way. This novel, my novel, is nothing like the novelettes and short stories I published before.  I admit, I enjoyed my own book. I want to share my book with you because I don't think it should be locked away on the hard drive of computer for all eternity. I want to share this with you and I hope you don't think different of me when I do.

I have to push those fears aside because maybe those sharks are tiger sharks and they won't bite or maybe I will plunge into the water and find myself lifted out of danger in a shiny bubble. Who knows. I don't want to wait. What will happen will happen, right? Isn't that the saying?

Maybe there is nothing to fear. Maybe I am over reacting. Maybe imagination is too wild.  Just maybe I should shut the hell up and let the world pass judgment.

I am working on the Kindle version which I want to have done in the next week.  Within the week of the Kindle release, I will have it available for print.  Remember Moonswallow Gates by me JM Scott. A novel filled with MAGIC, WITHCES, SEX AND BLOOD. Awesome right? I should be able to sell 50 copies with that alone.

When we meet again, I will have a novel published. Until then, keep your feet warm and your ice cream in your underwear.

Energy and all the Writing that Goes With It

More reading about writing, I do it every Sunday to keep ahead of my school work. But this week, this week made me panic. One of the textbooks in class is The Practice of Creative Writing by Heather Sellers. It's a fine book and I had to read a few chapters one of them about tension and energy and then it hit me... do I have the energy? Am I boring? Shit, I can't do this or I can do this but it won't be any good because it is flat and boring and lifeless. I often wondered if my work was boring.

I sent my parents a copy of my novel to read over before I put in on Kindle. Honestly, I love it, my novel that is. It is twisted and demented and crazy and just everything. It is the right time to publish this book. It has to be now and not two years from now. And guess what both have said they have not finished reading it.  Horse shit. They didn't finish a short novel which my first thought was it so boring they couldn't finish it. Let me tell you that really sucks.

I read my work and I read it fast, it moves fast. But I am too close to the work, I am always too close to the work. Even when I put an editor hat on, the work is still close to me. I think about my novel everyday. Not about the story because I think the story is fine. I think about getting it ready without anyone's thoughts on it. I have to rely on myself and I really wanted feedback on the novel. Now, I am back to the self doubt again, maybe I am not a good writer.

Sure, I can write a grammatically proper sentence. I can make proper paragraphs and cohesive papers but that's not enough. Sometimes, reading books about writing is a damper. I never think about tension but I know it exists. I don't create triangle diagrams or other diagram to display the action sequences. If any of this exists in my work, I would have no idea because writing just comes to me.

I don't think about stanza or line breaks, what ever comes out comes out. It varies. Where does this leave me? Who knows? So, I am going to toot my own horn I am special and different and that is reflected in my writing.  This has to be true, right?

To me, energy is transposed from the writer to the page to the reader. If I am excited and energized what I am working on, then it's going to show without me knowing about. That is your job as a reader to discern.

This Tuesday is my birthday and I will be 34 and I know that there is something amazing for me just around the corner (in addition to the camping trip we are taking in the middle of the week). Have a wonderful week.